66 • Suave Mechanicals : IV Dambrogio : Trickett’s Tickets • 67 Trickett’s Tickets Jana Dambrogio Introduction This is the biography of colonial emigrant bookbinder William Trickett (ca. 1738–1780), the only American whose ticketed bindings can be found among the records of the Continental Congress, the first government of the United States of America (USA). Trickett was a stationer, a Freemason, and may have been a Patriot during the Revolutionary War.1 As of 2017, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) retains probably the largest collection of Trickett bindings. Biographical information about Trickett, combined with his well-preserved handiwork, e.g., his distinct style of using tickets, tools, and materials to construct and decorate the covers of the books he sold, help to unravel a mystery, and Fig. 4. Philadelphia ticket, small type-set design. Courtesy National Archives and Records Adminis- what was once thought to be an impossible task, that of identifying who bound-by-hand tration. HxW: 2¼ x 3½ in. (5.7 x 8.9 cm.) blankbooks that now contain the USA’s earliest manuscript records.2 Presented in this essay are Trickett’s five “tickets,” a type of trade or business card attached inside his bindings, serving as a signature. Ticketed Trickett bindings help to attribute some of NARA’s twenty-nine additional, but ticketless, originals to him. The significant content captured in Trickett’s blankbooks includes the Founders’ real-time minute entries, indicating the USA’s declaration of independence from Britain.3 These bindings should be preserved as artifacts and are as American as the words contained within.4 1. In this instance, a Patriot refers to an American colonist who rebelled against the British in 1776. The American Revolution lasted from 1775 to 1783. 2. This essay is dedicated to the memory of Willman (1920–2010) and Carol (1929–2016) Spawn. I adopted the methodology they developed over sixty years, that of connecting biographical facts about bookbinders with the material features they leave behind on the books they made and decorated. Later, Tom Kinsella joined their efforts. They encouraged my work and taught me their techniques. In addition to providing me with numerous photocopies of their articles, they shared a six-page document of unpublished Trickett research with me, referred to herein as “Spawn’s unpublished research.” 3. Trickett bound: Rough Journal, Volume 3, 25 May–24 July 1776. It contains the 4 July 1776 entry on pp. 94–97 and an 11 July 1776 entry on p. 124, indicating that Congress paid Trickett for stationery; see Appendix 4. Trickett’s Accounts, #2. Papers of the Continental Congress. Rough Journals, 1774– 1789. Record Group 360. National Archives Building, Washington D.C., Entry 4 July 1776: <https:// www.fold3.com/image/246/455191>; accessed on 20 March 2017. 4. Dambrogio, Jana. “Made in the U.S.A.: Early American Bindings 1750–1860 at the National Fig. 6. Philadelphia, Freemason ticket, engraved, calligraphic design. Courtesy National Archives Archives.” Presented at the Book and Paper Group Session, American Institute for Conservation of and Records Administration. HxW: 2½ x 3⅝ in. (6.4 x 9.2 cm.) Historic and Artistic Works, 39th Annual Meeting, 31 May–3 June 2011, Philadelphia, Penn. Abstract © 2017 Jana Dambrogio The Legacy Press • All rights reserved © 2017 Jana Dambrogio The Legacy Press • All rights reserved This pdf is accessible only from: https://libraries.mit.edu/scholarly/search-scholarly/. It was originally published in This pdf is accessible only from: https://libraries.mit.edu/scholarly/search-scholarly/. It was originally published in Vol. 4 of Suave Mechanicals: Essays in the History of Bookbinding, pp. 66–155. ISBN: 9781940965055 (HC) / 062 (SC). Vol. 4 of Suave Mechanicals: Essays in the History of Bookbinding, pp. 66–155. ISBN: 9781940965055 (HC) / 062 (SC). Send inquiries to: [email protected] • To purchase books, visit: www.thelegacypress.com. Send inquiries to: [email protected] • To purchase books, visit: www.thelegacypress.com. 68 • Suave Mechanicals : IV Dambrogio : Trickett’s Tickets • 69 William Trickett in London (1738–1773) conduct, which precluded marriage among other restrictions including the consumption of William Trickett lived in London for the first thirty-five years of his short life. His baptism alcohol. On 27 September 1760, seven months after he was released from his apprenticeship was recorded as occurring at Blackfriars, on 14 January 1738 in St. Ann’s Parish.5, 6, 7 He was agreement, bachelor William Trickett wed “spinster” Susanna Lewis at St. Sepulchre in one of at least seven children in the William and Elizabeth (Cotton) Trickett family.8, 9 At Holborn.13 Susanna Trickett died of unknown causes within a year. age fifteen, young Trickett was formally apprenticed to his father William Sr., who was a According to the parish Marriage Allegation records – banns – a little over a year London stationer.10 The seven-year, two-month legal agreement began on 6 February 1753 and later on 11 October 1761, Trickett, twenty-three, widower, with his witness “John Doe” of lasted until 1 April 1760.11, 12 The training indenture bound Trickett to a forbidding code of St. Sepulchre parish, married spinster Sarah Stansbury, also twenty-three, at St. Mary the Virgin in Islington.14 The banns record bore the signatures of the bridal couple and their published in the 30 (2011): 35; Dambrogio, Jana. “Trickett’s Tickets: Book and Paper Group Annual witnesses, her younger brother Joseph and father Samuel Stansbury. Trickett applied for the Continental Congress Bookbinder and his Blank Books [Made in the USA], 1776–1780.” Public lecture given in the William McGowan Theater at the National Archives, Washington, D.C., 12 April 2012: banns and bond on the same day, only three days before the nuptials.15 <https://youtu.be/yeQBvYKcSpM>; <http://bit.ly/TrickettsTickets>; accessed on 30 March 2017. For twenty years, Trickett lived and worked in Snow Hill with his wife from 1761 to 5. Ancestry.com was an invaluable resource in building Trickett’s biography. However, this online 1773. Evidence of his shop location is found in his tickets.16 Illustrated in Fig. 1 is what may database can be difficult when attempts are made to recreate searches. For that reason, I have included be Trickett’s earliest ticket, an engraved, calligraphic design that identifies the location of his as much of the original source identification information from the images, e.g., page numbers, when shop as opposite Cock Lane, a street just south of Smithfield meat market: citing the records on this membership-only site. 6. Trickett’s last name is misspelled often. N.B. To recreate online searches, use the misspelled variants Willm Trickett | VELLUM BINDER and STATIONER, | Opposite Cock Lane indicated: Tricket, Trickets, Tricketts, Trichet, Trichett, Trichot, Tricot, Frickett, and Frickstts. Snow Hill | LONDON. | Where Gentleman, Merchants, & Shopkeepers, may | 7. It is not known for certain if Trickett was born in 1738 because his baptismal date is so close to the beginning of the New Year. London Metropolitan Archives, London, England, Church of England be Supply’d with all sorts of Accompt Books and Stationary Wares on the lowest Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538–1812, St Ann Blackfriars, Register of baptisms, 1701–1812, “Jan 14 Terms; | NB. Sells Bibles & Common Prayer Books.17, 18 1738. William T of William and Elizabeth Tricketts.” No page number in original register. Volume dates 25 March 1701–27 December 1812. Reference Number: P69/ANN/A/001/MS04508, Item 002: <http://bit.ly/TrickettBaptism>; accessed 19 July 2017. in 1753 and married his first wife in September 1760, a rite he could have only engaged in as a freeman. 8. Marriage record for William Trickett[s] and Elizabeth Cotton, 24 January 1727. London Metropolitan Archives, London, England, Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials, 1538–1812, All Hallows 13. Banns. Susanna Lewis marriage to William Frickett [sic]. Guildhall, St. Sepulchre Holborn, Register Staining, Composite Register: baptisms 1710–1743, marriages 1710–1743, burials 1710–1728, www. of Marriages, 1754–1764, 156. www.ancestry.com. London, England, Marriages and Banns, 1754–1921. ancestry.com, Reference Number: P69/ALH6/A/002/MS17825: <http://bit.ly/TrickettCotton>; Reference Number: P69/SEP/A/01/Ms7222/1: <http://bit.ly/TrickettLewis>; accessed 19 July 2017. accessed 19 July 2017. 14. Appendix 10. Trickett’s Genealogy Details, #2, #3, and #4. 9. Appendix 10. Trickett’s Genealogy Details, #1. 15. Trickett paid £2 for this bond. The original printed form was signed “Wm Trickett” and has 10. “Stationer, [Lat. stationarius, belonging to a military station] Term which seems to refer to traders what appears to be a papered seal, i.e., a signet stamp impressed into sealing wax or starch wafer with fixed stalls, or occupying buildings rather than stalls, or not being itinerant vendors; it was sandwiched between the document substrate and a smaller diamond-shaped paper on top (to act originally used to describe university booksellers in the early 13th century, reaching England by 1262. as an authentication enhancement) next to his signature. London Metropolitan Archives, London Why it became attached to the book trade as a generic term is unclear. From the 15th century, its and Surrey, England, Marriage Bonds and Allegations, 1597–1921, Marriage Bonds and Allegations, primary meaning appears to have been bookseller; however, it could also describe members of the dated 8 October 1761, “We William/ Trickett of the Parish of St. Sepulchre/ London Stationer book trade regardless of their occupation. Thomas Blount (in 1656) was the first to distinguish its and John Doe,” 844. www.ancestry.com, Reference Number: MS10091E/74: <http://bit.ly/ modern sense as the seller of stationery products; S. Johnson, a century later, was still retaining its TrickettMarriage2Bond>; accessed 19 July 2017.